Best Practices During Covid-19 With A Significant Focus On Online Teaching: A Case Of Private HEI

The main purpose of the study was to explore the best practices of online teaching during the Pandemic in a private higher education institution in England. The Covid-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to education systems worldwide. The fast switch to online learning was a monumental task for higher education institutions (HEIs), especially for private HEIs with limited resources compared to public HEIs. Therefore, the HEIs made tremendous efforts to make the transition to online or remote learning as good as possible. Although Oxford Business college (OBC) quickly adapted to online teaching despite some challenges but also demonstrated some best practices. The research presents some of the good practices OBC adopted to make online learning effective during the pandemic. For almost two years (2020-21), the researchers were part of the composition of the OBC team to plan, implement online strategy and train staff and students to make online teaching effective during the global pandemic. This gave the researchers a unique opportunity to observe and understand lived experiences of staff and conduct interviews for more in-depth understanding by divisions (leadership, management). As a result, the goal was achieved by bringing out the good practices used during the pandemic. Findings from this study revealed the best practices in strategic planning and business growth, successful transition to online teaching, the establishment of a research profile, recruitment of highly qualified and experienced academic staff, excellent student attendance and pass rates and lowest student dropouts

Progression from ocular hypertension to visual field loss in the English hospital eye service

Background There are more than one million National Health Service visits in England and Wales each year for patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension (OHT). With the ageing population and an increase in optometric testing, the economic burden of glaucoma-related visits is predicted to increase. We examined the conversion rates of OHT to primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) in England and assessed factors associated with risk of conversion. Methods Electronic medical records of 45 309 patients from five regionally different glaucoma clinics in England were retrospectively examined. Conversion to POAG from OHT was defined by deterioration in visual field (two consecutive tests classified as stage 1 or worse as per the glaucoma staging system 2). Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine factors (age, sex, treatment status and baseline intraocular pressure (IOP)) associated with conversion. Results The cumulative risk of conversion to POAG was 17.5% (95% CI 15.4% to 19.6%) at 5 years. Older age (HR 1.35 per decade, 95% CI 1.22 to 1.50, p<0.001) was associated with a higher risk of conversion. IOP-lowering therapy (HR 0.45, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.57, p<0.001) was associated with a lower risk of conversion. Predicted 5-year conversion rates for treated and untreated groups were 14.0% and 26.9%, respectively. Conclusion Less than one-fifth of OHT patients managed in glaucoma clinics in the UK converted to POAG over a 5-year period, suggesting many patients may require less intensive follow-up. Our study provides real-world evidence for the efficacy of current management (including IOP-lowering treatment) at reducing risk of conversion

The Psychobiological Correlates Of Panic Attacks During In Vivo Exposure

This study examined in detail the psychobiological correlates of panic attacks experienced in panic disorder with agoraphobia. The cognitions, affect, and physiology of the six patients were monitored during in vivo exposure to their phobic situations. The results from these case studies showed that catastrophic cognitions are the key component of panic attacks. However, there was no clear-cut evidence to support an interaction among cognitions, affect, and physiology, which has been postulated by cognitive theories to be the central component of panic attacks and panic disorder with agoraphobia

Mass transfer efficiency of a tall and low plate free area liquid pulsed sieve-plate extraction column

Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge Chakwal group of industries for funding the project. Ms. Madiha, Ms. Zona, Mr. Sohaib, Mr. Abdullah, Mr. Mudassar, and Mr. Salahuddin also deserve our acknowledgements for their assistance in different ways.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

An Experimental mmWave Channel Model for UAV-to-UAV Communications

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) networks can provide a resilient communication infrastructure to enhance terrestrial networks in case of traffic spikes or disaster scenarios. However, to be able to do so, they need to be based on high-bandwidth wireless technologies for both radio access and backhaul. With this respect, the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum represents an enticing solution, since it provides large chunks of untapped spectrum that can enable ultra-high data-rates for aerial platforms. Aerial mmWave channels, however, experience characteristics that are significantly different from terrestrial deployments in the same frequency bands. As of today, mmWave aerial channels have not been extensively studied and modeled. Specifically, the combination of UAV micro-mobility (because of imprecisions in the control loop, and external factors including wind) and the highly directional mmWave transmissions require ad hoc models to accurately capture the performance of UAV deployments. To fill this gap, we propose an empirical propagation loss model for UAV-to-UAV communications at 60 GHz, based on an extensive aerial measurement campaign conducted with the Facebook Terragraph channel sounders. We compare it with 3GPP channel models and make the measurement dataset publicly available.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables. Please cite it as M. Polese, L. Bertizzolo, L. Bonati, A. Gosain, T. Melodia, An Experimental mmWave Channel Model for UAV-to-UAV Communications, in Proc. of ACM Workshop on Millimeter-Wave Networks and Sensing Systems (mmNets), London, UK, Sept. 202

Knowledge and awareness of pregnant women about ultrasounsd scanning and prenatal diagnosis

Objective: Antenatal screening and ultrasound scan has become an integral part of the antenatal care in the present time. The aim of this study is to accurately describe the background knowledge and awareness of pregnant women about ultrasound scan and prenatal diagnosis.Methods: It is a clinic based cross sectional study. Four hundred women, attending the antenatal clinics, were asked to fill in a pre tested structured questionnaire. Different variables of interest were collected. Statistical Program for the social sciences (SPSS) was used for the data management.Results: Over 93.5% of the women were aware that ultrasound examination is an important investigation. They believed that it should be performed at least twice during pregnancy but were not sure about the timing of the test. Most of them felt that it was to check the growth of the baby and 97% of women considered ultrasound to be safe. However, only 26% of women had any knowledge about Down\u27s syndrome or its screening.Conclusion: Pregnant women in our set-up are aware of importance of ultrasound examination during pregnancy. However, there is a need to improve public awareness of problems like Down\u27s syndrome